What You Don't Know About Ben Miller

Crowdfunding is taking the capital markets by storm and Bisnow is on the front lines. Tomorrow we’re releasing a free video featuring Fundrise CEO Ben Miller to help you understand the impact of this important trend. For now, here are some fun details that you probably don’t know about Ben and Fundrise.

Memorable project: We did a project with Chatham Development in the Hamptons and raised $1M in 48 hours with the help of many investors. It was a very popular investment because of the location and given Chatham’s status as the largest home developer in Long Island.
Hometown: Washington, DC.
School: UPenn.
First job: Reuters Scientific Bookstore, where I stocked and sold books through my junior year high school summer.
Why real estate: It’s the family business, but I was able to do it a different way.
Family Business: Western Development, which built shopping centers including Sawgrass Mills in Florida and Gurnee Mills in Illinois.
First real estate memory: At age five, I remember sitting in a bulldozer shovel in the fully excavated hole for Georgetown Park Phase 1 in DC.
First CRE job: Junior analyst at Lubert-Adler real estate private equity.
Job in another life: Sci-fi writer or astrophysicist.
Person (living or dead) to meet: Napoleon. I’d ask him why he didn’t stop when he had enough and controlled most of Europe. He shouldn’t have invaded Russia. You never want to fight a land war in Asia.
Favorite band and song: Poison – “Cry Tough.”
Favorite book: Guns of August.
Favorite TV show: Arrested Development.
Favorite vacation spot: Lombok, Indonesia. I went to the small island with my family in 1997. It was famous for racing giant buffalo through channels of water. My dad forced me to race (I’m probably the only foreigner to ever do so) so I stood on top of the buffalo’s shoulders (pictured) and it was completely terrifying.
Favorite app: Expense Cloud. Take a picture of your receipts and it automatically hooks to your credit card.
Guilty pleasure: Marvel superhero movies, especially X-Men. Also Guardians of the Galaxy was surprisingly good.
Bucket list: Bisnow coverage of my guilty pleasure.
Family facts: Wife Laura, three-year-old son Jude, and 11-month-old son Toby.
Typical day: Up many times throughout the night. At dawn, I make Toby eggs and walk Jude to pre-school. Then to work.
Hobbies: Soccer and reading biographies.
Startling fact: A green investment company I started has an environmental building product installed in the White House kitchen (called Nordiclean, it’s an air purification system).

Check back tomorrow for the free crowdfunding video!